Identity thieves take advantage of everyday opportunities to discover your personal information and use it to commit fraud or other crimes. The good news is a victim of identity theft has more options today than ever before. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), there are four important actions you can take to minimize the credit damage caused by circumstances beyond your control.
1. Contact any of the three major credit bureaus. Speak to someone in the fraud department and request that a fraud alert be placed on your credit report. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the other two will automatically place one on your report as well. With a fraud alert in place, creditors must contact you before opening any new accounts in your name or changing any details of your existing accounts.
Then request a free copy of your credit report from each one. Review all of your credit information looking for unauthorized accounts, charges, or changes. Check the accuracy of your name, address, phone number, Social Security number (SSN), past employers, and any other personal information. Request any inaccuracies be corrected by notifying the bureaus by phone and follow up in writing by using certified mail, return receipt requested, so you will have documentation of all requests and responses by the bureaus. The addresses for each bureau are listed at the end of this article.
Continue to check your reports every few months, especially in the first year after you have lost your personal information.
2. Contact the creditors for the accounts that have been altered or opened without your permission. This includes bank accounts, credit card companies, lenders, utilities, phone companies, Internet service providers, and any other services that may be opened fraudulently. Contact the company’s fraud department b phone and follow up with a letter.
The FTC offers the “ID Theft Affidavit” to dispute new accounts, available at www.ftc.gov . To dispute charges on existing accounts, request the company’s fraud dispute forms.
If you suspect that a thief has been passing bad checks in your name, close the account immediately and notify your bank. Contact the major check verification services and ask that the retailers who use their databases stop accepting your checks for purchases. To find out if an identity thief has been writing checks in your name, call SCAN at 1-800-262-7771.
Hacker Stealing Your DATA;
Stealing your personal information is every identity thief’s objective, and for the goal of financial gain at your loss. Thieves steal personal information from wallets, purses, and computers, or through the Internet in a variety of ways (but ways that can be stopped with safe computing).
Here are some of the things thieves do:
- Steal your personal information from your mail box or purse or wallet, or while you’re working on the internet.
- Change your billing address. They can do this two ways: using a “change of address” form obtained from the post office or enclosed in your credit card bill (that they stole from your mailbox). Then, they charge items to your account. Even though you stop receiving your credit card bill, it might take you a while to notice that. By the time you do, your account could be maxed out.
- Open new credit card accounts in your name using your Social Security number. The accounts rack up charges you don’t know about, go unpaid, and show up as late payments on your credit report.
- Open a bank account in your name and bounce checks.
- Forge your signature on blank checks or authorize ATM transfers in your name, draining your bank account.
- File for bankruptcy under your name to avoid paying debts they incurred under your name.
- Buy a car by taking out an auto loan in your name.
- Get identification, such as a driver’s license, issued in your name but with their picture.
- Give your name to the police during an arrest. When you don’t show up for the court date, an arrest warrant is issued in your name.
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